OPIOIDS

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is the use of prescribed drugs to help a person break free from addiction to some other drug. While MAT makes plenty of money for pharmaceutical companies and prescribers, it may not be so great for those taking the drug.

Across America, families are struggling and suffering from the effects of our opioid epidemic. Losses show up in the deaths of our loved ones and an astronomical financial burden. But now, we are seeing signs that our national counterefforts are starting to produce results.

In some ways, it’s the toughest environment ever in which to raise children. Sure, there were more deadly diseases before antibiotics and clean water. But in earlier times, there weren’t as many ways to lose your children to drugs or alcohol.

If you have been watching headlines that relate to drug overdoses, you’ve heard of fentanyl, a powerful opioid manufactured in China but often imported into the U.S. The cheap price and high potency of this drug make it a drug dealer’s dream but a family’s nightmare.

For the last several years, America has been focused on overcoming an epidemic of opioid addiction. But as we fight this problem, are we unintentionally setting the stage for an epidemic of stimulant abuse?

When people take drugs, they eventually eliminate traces of those drug through the body’s waste products. Traces of these drugs in our water supplies give us an index to the quantity of drug use going on.

Families who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic should be pleased that five chairmen of pharmaceutical distribution companies have been called before Congress to account for their actions. These executives could be required to fund the recovery of millions of Americans, depending on the findings of Congress.

It can take years for a family to realize that all the problems they are seeing in a loved one’s life add up to addiction. Even when they do know, they often don’t realize the incredible risks their loved one takes each day by injecting uncontrolled illicit drugs.